San Diego's first Walmart Neighborhood Market, already filled with all but the perishable items, is set to open any day now in Sherman Heights.

The giant retailer's Neighborhood Market concept brings smaller-format stores -- about one-third the size of its Supercenters -- to communities to meet their basic grocery and pharmaceutical needs.

The 42,000-square-foot store on Imperial Avenue will offer an array of fresh produce, meats and packaged foods, along with freshly baked breads and Hispanic pastries. It also features household basics like paper products and cleaning supplies, and services like check cashing and a pharmacy.

Special tags marking products that are considered healthier will help time-crunched shoppers get through the store more quickly.

Walmart Neighborhood Market - Sherman Heights

Placed between AutoZone, R & V Products restaurant supply and an old school, the Neighborhood Market will expand the supermarket options in the depressed urban neighborhood. The only other groceries nearby are Northgate González Market, which anchors the new Mercado del Barrio development about a half-mile southwest, and an Albertsons on Market Street about the same distance northwest.

Walmart's 250 Neighborhood Markets across the country average 38,000 square feet and employ about 65 people, compared with Walmart Supercenters, which average 182,000 square feet in size and employ about 300.

And while Supercenters carry everything from milk to jewelry, Neighborhood Markets are more like a typical grocery store.

"Neighborhood Markets are designed to serve the immediate community, not to draw people in from far away," explained Aaron Rios, director of public affairs for Walmart. San Diego County is home to 22 Walmart stores, including general stores, Supercenters, Sam's Club stores and one Neighborhood Market in La Mesa.

The Sherman Heights store will be the region's second Neighborhood Market, and the company plans to open a third in Oceanside early next year.

Rios said that this market will be able to satisfy customers' need for general merchandise by offering the wildly popular Walmart.com Site to Store service, which allows customers to order from among most of the 2 million items on the retailer's website and have them shipped to their local Walmart store for free.

Located on the site of an old granary-turned farmers market, this Neighborhood Market is unlike any other, Rios said, because it used the original building, which is more than 100 years old. The company replaced the roof with a more energy-efficient one, installed new stained-concrete flooring and reinforced portions of the wall that were not earthquake-safe, but kept the original four brick walls and grain silos.

Walmart also removed the old Virgin of Guadalupe mural and is having it restored so it can be placed back on the side of the building.

"We are trying to maintain the character of the neighborhood, but also reuse an asset to the community," Rios said.

He said the store is set to open as soon as it completes the last few permitting steps with the city, "hopefully in a few very short days."